Eligible Elk

Ernie the Elk took another sip of cold water. It was rutting season and for some reason, his classified ad had not been printed in the local news. No doubt the doing of some jealous rivals. He had worked for days on that ad and now he was left with no advance ballyhoo. Ernie would have to count on his bugling and butting alone this year. Was he was up to the challenge?

Ernie kicked up some dirt at his reflection in the water and posed. He was looking good. But he had never been a great verbalizer. It was a shame about that classified ad. It wouldn’t hurt to gargle before attracting attention to himself. Two minutes later, Ernie looked to the left and looked to the right. He coughed a bit and stamped his foot. He did a jig to the tune of the Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy. He took a deep breath. Look out world!

“The typical bugle of the bull elk is a surprising, distinctive sound that begins deep and resonant, and becomes a high pitched squeal before ending in a succession of grunts.”—estes-park.com

These elk photos are from Alberta.

Ernie ponders his fate this season.

Maybe a bouquet of flowers would help his chances?

He’s probably the one who sabotaged his classified ad!

The Classified Section Editor keeps a low profile.

“The elk or wapiti (Cervus canadensis) is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in North America and Northeast Asia.”  —Wikipedia

“The elk that you glimpse in the summer, those at the forest edge, are survivors of winter, only the strongest. You see one just before dusk that summer, standing at the perimeter of the meadow so it can step back to the forest and vanish. You can’t help imagining the still, frozen nights behind it, so cold that the slightest motion is monumental. I have found their bodies, half drifted over in snow, no sign of animal attack or injury. Just toppled over one night with ice working into their lungs. You wouldn’t want to stand outside for more than a few minutes in that kind of weather. If you lived through only one of those winters the way this elk has, you would write books about it. You would become a shaman. You would be forever changed. That elk from the winter stands there on the summer evening, watching from beside the forest. It keeps its story to itself.” ― Craig Childs, The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

Check out the interesting facts about ELK with pics of fall antlers by RMEF 

TATTOO—Journeys on My Mind by Tina Marie L. Lamb is available at Amazon and BarnesandNoble and iBooks and Audible.

Buy it. Read it. Let me know what you think. –TMLL